Free Singing Tips, Singing Instruction: Learn The Simple Secrets of Singing Higher and Higher

Nov 27
08:29

2009

Al Koehn

Al Koehn

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

As a singing teacher, I receive many questions concerning how to increase the high range. This seems to be on every singer's mind, and for good reason; a great number of songs are written to carry the listener through lower sections (usually the verses) into the climatic choruses, which usually contain one or two notes which tax many singers and cause them to sound strained and uncomfortable. This obviously takes a lot away from the overall power of the performance. What to do about this?

mediaimage

When the Wizard of Oz floated off in his hot-air balloon he was unable to return for Dorothy (remember?) because there wasn't enough weight in the basket to bring the balloon back down. He had dropped all of his sandbags so he kept going higher and higher,Free Singing Tips, Singing Instruction:  Learn The Simple Secrets of Singing Higher and Higher Articles away from Dorothy and friends.


The biggest secret to extending your high range begins with understanding that in order to sing higher we must drop the sandbags (fatness and weight). A primary problem here is that we can push our voices quite high without dropping the weight. This is a lot like the guitar player trying to play the higher notes on the low string. It can be done, but it doesn't sound good, and it takes so much finger pressure that it’s painful. Keeping the fatness and pressure in your voice when you sing the high notes sounds forced and amateurish, and can seriously damage your vocal cords. 


Try this exercise: Start singing a note very low in your range…way down at the bottom, then slide up through your entire vocal range, all the way to the topmost falsetto sound you can make. This should sound like a siren. As you move higher and higher, lighten the weight of your sound so it can rise more easily. If it "clicks" at the falsetto break, don't worry about it; just keep on sliding your voice higher and higher. Girls, if you reach a point somewhere near the middle of your voice where you can't seem to go any higher, you've probably reached the "break." Flip across this and continue on up. Don't worry about the change in sound quality. It may suddenly get very small or breathy, or piercing. That's OK. Just keep going until you reach the topmost note you can possibly sing without straining. DON'T PUSH YOUR VOICE UP, SLIDE IT EASILY AND LIGHTLY.


Then try it again; but this time I want you to notice what your mouth and throat opening are doing as you sing higher. Are they opening wider, or are they pinching shut—is the jaw tensing? Now, try it again, resolving to relax the jaw and open the mouth and throat. This is going against our reflexive tendency to shut things down in order to sing the higher notes. Rather than tell yourself to "relax," suggest to yourself that "my jaw is made out of rubber," and "my mouth and throat openings are very loose and pliable." If you are confused about the throat opening, say "ga, ga, ga" using a hard "G." Notice where tt hard "G" is being formed. That's the throat opening which tends to close when we sing high notes. Feel very "yawny".


So how do you open that hole? How do you control it? The first step is to take your breath in so it feels like you are yawning. Try it. Notice the feeling of stretch at that throat opening. Singers should always breathe in like they are beginning to yawn. Notice I said the beginning of a yawn. This is easy and comfortable, not like the middle of a yawn where everything is stretched too wide for singing. 


 

Article "tagged" as:

Categories: